Never really seen too many Dusters at car shows as a kid. They were always Chevelle's, Vette's, a random Nova or two, Chargers and Challengers. Maybe the odd out Trans Am or FIrebird would show up. But rarely a Duster.
I was getting bored with not having anything to build while we waited on the truck the wife wants to ship. Took a trip to Hobby Lobby to look at their wood for another project and they were having another 40% off sale. I stood there for about 20 minutes looking at the kits but nothing really spoke out. Then I started looking at a 55' Chevy and this kit. In the end, it was the few dollar savings that I bought this one.
I was going to do another project with a '69 Superbee in MYstic Green, but for some reason decided not to. I grabbed the kit and started looking at the paints. I have a full can of yellow at the house, but didn't want another yellow car right now. AS i kept looking I spotted the Mystic Green. Started googling the real car in green and saw that most of them were a bright green. So i grabbed it along with a Testors "Wet Look" clear and checked out.
As usual, I washed and dried the parts. Layed down the first few coats of primer and let it set. Sprayed the first coat of this green and knew right away I wasn't going to like it. The body and hood were already in the brake bath.
The paint was coming out in swirls of a dark metallic green and a light metallic green. It looked like a baby threw up. After the brake bath, i went back and rewashed the parts. Did another round of wet sanding and tooth picking to get the cracks cleared and started over. This time around, I shook the paint for about 15 minutes. Upside down, right side up, left side over, the stuff was going to mix one way or the other.
Took the booth outside into the daylight, found some shade and layed on the first coat. It looked okay. Waited about an hour, layed on the second coat. Followed this up with some wet sanding and another coat of paint. It actually looked great. Let it dry for 24hrs and laid on two coats of the wet look clear. I was amazed. It was the best paint job i've done so far. It wasn't heavy, wasn't light. Just the right color green.
As I finished the interior, I started adding decals to the body. Chrome the trim and buffed it with Meguiars Scratch X. The body was coming out as best as I could hope for. I was more pleased with this build so far than any of the others.
FInished assembling the interior and got the motor and other parts attached to the chassis. Did a body fit and everything so far was going great. It looked good, had a good stance, the whole 9 yards. Then the snafu hit. I had been struggling with keeping the hood scoops and rear wing on. Seems the Tamiya thin glue wasn't holding well and I couldn't get the testors glue to hold well enough.
I decided to attach the wing struts tot he truck, and drop a few drops on the Tamiya into the hole. BIG MISTAKE. It did what it is designed to do and ended up running down the trunk.
At a dollar a word and twenty dollars later into the swear jar, I masked it off, wet sanded it the best i could without going through the paint to reveal the plastic. Decided to just sand 3/4 of the trunk (2nd mistake) and repaint it.
Stood there at the booth, shaking the can for about 5 minutes. Sprayed a few passes onto cardboard to make sure i was getting the right color to come out. Everything looked fine. Thinly layered the paint onto the trunk and started filling the jar again. The paint did what it did the first time around. Came out dark and went to light. Said to hell with it, and let it dry. Layed one more coat before the clear.
After it had dried, i unwrapped the body and low and behold, you could see a nice line between the two paint jobs. (Lesson learned. Should have masked the entire trunk and redid the whole thing). Started sanding and got the line as smooth as possible. But there was nothing I could do to fix the clash between colors. And I was not about to brake bath it. I didn't have another set of black decals.
Leaving it as is, after all this isn't a show car. I started to finish it up. Finally able to get the wing struts attached to the wing, I got that in place after putting the body onto the chassis. Reglued the scoops that keep falling off and finished adding the engine bay components. And why it was designed to add all that stuff AFTER assembly, not sure. But the hoses were not easy.
Overall, I really enjoyed this kit with the snafu. It was a lot more advanced than I had thought with the individual front spindles that move, all of the extra hoses and parts under the hood, the rear stand alone shock mounts, etc.. But in the end, it's what I feel made this kit really stand out from all of the others i've done. And to be honest, I just may do another, just a different color. I did go with the single carb engine build instead of the six pack. My Roadrunner already has the six in it. Wanted this one to be different.
The body lines are well defined and made the BMF a lot easier to work with. Even the fender well chrome trim was easier to work, though you can still see some minor clumps. The interior was well designed, just wish there were more decals. And speaking of decals, the Plymouth decals, though white on the sheet fade out to nothing if put over a darker color, so a few of those were left out. Finished it off with the Tamiya panel line on the hood grill and there she was.
There are some minor touch ups that need to be done. Mainly under the hood. But in the end, I would give this kit and build an 8/10.
Oh, and this is the first time I've used embossing powder. Layed in under the hood with Elmer's clear glue to give the effect of the fire retardant material that used to be there. I used the wrong size brush so the glue didn't get everywhere it needed to be. But I like it like this. Make it feel like it has that old feeling while still looking like a renewed car.
